Blood Rights and Responsibilities
by Sceadu
Summary: The David Warner "Unbound" Doctor and the Brigadier come face to face with a young man with a special connection to the Timelord
1. Part 1

The Doctor sat silently on the top of a hill looking down at the small cluster of timber buildings surrounded by a deep circular ditch. Most of the buildings were fairly small but a few were larger and there was one was a very big stone building. This biggest building was the great hall where the Brigadier was still curled up on the floor near the hearth, sleeping off the previous night's excesses. The great grey hunting hound that had been following him all day was probably still resting his head on the old man's legs.  
  
When the Doctor had first told the Brigadier that he was going to visit an old friend at the Palace of King Offa the old soldier had expected something very grand. But palaces in eighth century England were very different. This collection of huts was the Palace and capitol of the greatest ruler on the island of Britain. This was the Palace of Offa, King of Mercia and Overlord of all the other English Kings. Beothric, the King of Wessex, had just married Offa's daughter and departed for his own Palace in Chedar a few days ago after coming to pay homage to his overlord and new father in law. It was in this post celebration atmosphere that the Doctor and the Brigadier had arrived.  
  
However, the Doctor had not been visiting the King but a young monk by the name of Leoffric. Leoffric was only in his early twenties but he was already a renowned scholar and Offa had taken him from his sheltered monastic home and made him one of his senior officials. Offa was always quick to spot a man of value. This was not what the Doctor had planed for his young protege but the cards had now been dealt and he was determined to make sure things did not go any further astray.  
  
The Doctor could not quite remember why he had thought this was a good time to leave Leoffric. It was 783 Ad and a very strange time in England's history. The Viking raids would not seriously start for another 10 years, King Alfred would not create a single English state for over 100 years and the Norman Conquest was still nearly 300 years in the future. But it was also a time when England was one of the richest and most peaceful places in Europe.  
  
Offa was the powerful master of all England south of the Humber and could stand shoulder to shoulder with Charlemagne, king of Franks and Irene, Empress of Constantinople. This modest collection of huts was one of the three most important places in Europe and Leoffric was at the very heart of it and that made the Doctor very uncomfortable. The whole idea had been to hide the boy away where he could not affect the history of the world around him.  
  
The Doctor stood up and began to make his way down the Hill towards the enclosure. He would wake the Brigadier and then he would demand to see Leoffric. They had been waiting for three days and even though he had been welcomed and made very comfortable he had found the excuse that the King's clerk was still too busy to see him unsettling.  
  
********************* The Brigadier woke with a stinking hangover. He was not entirely sure what it was he had been drinking last night but he could still taste it on the inside of his eyeballs.  
  
The Brigadier could feel a warm and wet sensation against his face. When he opened his eyes he found the large hunting hound licking away at him. The Brigadier tried to push the hound away from his face but in his aged and hazy state he was not fining it easy.  
  
"Ruff, leave him alone" said a young voice.  
  
The licking stopped and the Brigadier looked up for the first time. He saw the large grey hound plodding across the hall towards a young man who was standing by the grand main doors.  
  
The young man was not wearing the usual decorated tunics or long hair that most of the young men of the King's court wore. Neither did he sport the bushy beard that was the fashion amongst the elders. His hair was short, his face was clean-shaven and he was wearing a plain white monk's habit.  
  
"You must be the Doctor's companion," said the young monk.  
  
The Brigadier struggled to his feet and faced the other man. He squinted through the sleepy haze in front of his eyes to get a closer look of the monk's face.  
  
"Yes I am, you can call me Sir, most of my acquaintances do" said the Brigadier.  
  
"And what do you friends call you?" asked the monk.  
  
"Well that's for them to know and for you to earn, but I answer to Brig on a good day" replied the Brigadier.  
  
The monk nodded as the hound circled around his feet while occasionally looking up at his face for reassurance.  
  
"Well then Brig, my friends call me Leo," said the monk.  
  
The Brigadier nodded.  
  
"Have you seen the Doctor this morning" asked Leo.  
  
"Well not really, I have only just woken up. The last time I saw him he was wagging an agitated finger at the King during the feasting last night" replied the Brigadier.  
  
"Yes, that sounds like him" replied the monk.  
  
The Brigadier could not disagree with that statement.  
  
"Let me properly introduce myself. I am Brother Leoffric and I have been waiting for the Doctor for a very, very long time" said the monk.  
  
"Alistair, Leo." Exclaimed the Doctor as he entered through the huge doorway.  
  
"Ah Doctor there you are, I take it this is the young man you are looking for" said the Brigadier.  
  
The Doctor nodded.  
  
"You certainly kept me waiting long enough," said Leo.  
  
The Doctor began to shift guiltily.  
  
"I'm sorry," he said.  
  
"It's OK. I know the sort of life you lead, Father," said Leo.  
  
**************************************** 


	2. Part 2

The three men sat on stools around a table in one of the smaller timber buildings in the enclosure. The building was fairly compact but with the straw on the floor and the tapestries on the walls it had all the trappings of a high status accommodation. There was partition, which divided where they were seated from the sleeping area. Ruff the hound was curled up close to plume of smoke that rose from a small but recently extinguished fire in the centre of the space.  
  
Piles of scrolls and papers lay around the room in some form of chaotic order and writing materials covered the table beside the remains of a meal. Three horn cups of the same warm brew that had knocked out the Brigadier the previous night sat in front of each of the men as they talked.  
  
"I think I could get used to this stuff," said the Brigadier as he took a big swig from his cup.  
  
The Doctor raised an eyebrow and turned his attention back to Leo.  
  
"So you are happy here?" asked the Doctor.  
  
"Yes, this strange little world fascinates me. That is something I inherited from you even if I did not inherit your wanderlust." Replied Leo.  
  
"I still can't see any resemblance." said the Brigadier.  
  
"You never knew me when my first body was young," said the Doctor.  
  
"True" replied the Brigadier.  
  
The Doctor looked closely at Leo as though the youngster was a mirror in to his own past.  
  
"Still, I never pictured you as the parental sort either," said the Brigadier.  
  
"Listen Brigadier we have been through this twice now, I am not his parent I am just his...." The Doctor stopped when Leo interrupted.  
  
"You are my father. Your blood flows through my veins stronger than it would through any conventional son"  
  
"Leo, Timelords do not have children you are a clone and one I may add that was made without my consent" snapped the Doctor.  
  
The Brigadier watched the other two men carefully. He had never seen the Doctor like this before. He was obviously very concerned about the boy's welfare but his speech was often stern and resentful when he spoke to him.  
  
"They did not have my consent to make me either" said Leo gently "but you are the only person in the universe that I have any connection too, Father" the last word was said with emphasis.  
  
The three had returned to an uncomfortable silence when the head of a ruddy faced man peeked through the door. Leo looked up and signalled to him before the man left.  
  
"Well Brigadier, Father please allow yourselves to continue enjoying the hospitality of the court. I have been called to the King but I am sure I will see you at this evening's festivities." Leo said and then left.  
  
*******************  
  
It had been a few hours since Leo had disappeared to see then King and the Doctor and the Brigadier had spent much of the intervening time exploring the fields that surrounded the enclosure. The Doctor had been delighted by the landscape and the Brigadier had familiarised himself with a few young women who had been carrying pales of water back to the Palace enclosure.  
  
It was now fast beginning to get dark as the sky turned an ever deeper blue. The Doctor and the Brigadier found themselves halfway up a small hill when they decided to head back.  
  
"You are really concerned about that boy," said the Brigadier as they began to descend the hill.  
  
"Yes I am. For all his bravado he is an innocent. When the Cybermen cloned me they thought they could use him to understand how I worked and better prepare their plans. When he reached maturity he was to be converted in to a new CyberController with all my wit but the cold determination of a Cyberman".  
  
The Brigadier listened attentively, trying to fully get to grips with Leo's shattered past.  
  
"Unfortunately for them their cloning facility was on a planet close to Dalek space. During one of their sporadic border clashes the facility was destroyed. The Timelords detected my DNA amongst the survivors and thinking they had caught me transmatted him to the Capitol. When they realised he was a clone they were outraged, they could not tolerate the idea of a clone polluting the pure Timelord gene pool. So when they finally caught up with me they offered me a deal. If I settled him somewhere else, somewhere where he could not damage the time continuum they would not kill him" continued the Doctor.  
  
"Not much of a choice then" said the Brigadier.  
  
"No. I thought he would be safe here away from a technological society that he could influence. I never suspected that even here he could start to interfere. I could feel the vibration in the continuum the moment we landed." said the Doctor.  
  
Just then they heard the bellowing of a horn being blown in the enclosure. The sound was deep and rung in their ears. When they looked closely they could see the people that had previously filled the fields close to the enclosure running as fast as they could to get back within its walls. Then suddenly the sky darkened until the air around them was nearly black. More quickly than they imagined possible the two of them found themselves alone in the dark with only the distant shimmer of the lamps at the Palace to guide them back.  
  
It was then they heard the growl. Deep and raw like the ripping of flesh, the roar filled the air around them and vibrated in their chests. Then from behind them there was a tremendous thud, followed by another, as if a giant was astride the land. These powerful strides were becoming louder and more insistent.  
  
The Doctor and the Brigadier turned towards the sound as it got ever closer and ever louder and came face to face with a set of giant serrated white teeth opening in their direction.  
  
To be Continued. 


	3. Part 3

The Doctor and the Brigadier clung closely together in the expectation that they were about to be devoured.  
  
"Hwaet" shouted a familiar voice "abædan modsefa"  
  
The gnashing teeth came to a halt as though frozen in time. The Doctor and the Brigadier turned in the direction of the voice. There, holding a bright flaming torch above his head, was Leo. He moved closer to the two older men and as he did the beast that had previously been hidden in shadow was revealed.  
  
It was not a beast at all but a collection of cogs and wheels turning over inside some strange mechanism. The teeth were in fact steel blades in a row and pained white. Two massive drums with a form of automated hammer were on either side of the manufactured beast.  
  
"Let me introduce you to Grendel" said Leo.  
  
"Who?" asked the Brigadier.  
  
"Grendel is a little devise I whipped up with some local odds and ends to deter strangers from approaching the palace at night" said Leo "He makes plenty of noise and fury to put the fear of god in to most Saxon men but I though you two would be immune".  
  
"Well of course I knew it was not real," said the Doctor and he straightened out his coat.  
  
The Brigadier looked at the Doctor, raised a questioning eyebrow at the last comment and then turned back to Leo.  
  
"Leo, what were those words you used to make it stop" he asked.  
  
"Old Saxon" interrupted the Doctor before Leo could speak "Usually the Tardis would automatically translate the words in to ones you could understand but on this occasion Leo seems to have deliberately side-stepped that"  
  
"I had to make sure the Tardis's influence did not interfere with the instruction for the machine to stop. Otherwise the two of you would be in several pieces" replied Leo.  
  
"Don't you think this is all rather extreme to put off a few poachers and thieves" said the Doctor in a huffy manner.  
  
"It's not designed to put of poachers but something much, much worse" said Leo.  
  
"Such as?" asked the Doctor.  
  
"Shall we discuss that in the comfort of the hall" suggested Leo.  
  
*************************  
  
The sound of chatter and song filled the hall as the lamplight flickered against the ceiling beams and ornate tapestries that covered the walls. Men and women of all ages clustered together on benches and on the floors entertaining each other with fantastic tales and suggestive limericks. Children ran around the edges of the crowds of adults who seemed to enjoy rather than prickle at the noise of the screaming brats.  
  
The King's son, Ecgfrith, sat in his father's place at the head of the hall where an assortment of jewelled noblemen and women demurred and ingratiated themselves with him. It was clear that the young man was enjoying the attention. The King's daughter, Eadburh, circled among the crowds and received their congratulations on her recent marriage to the King of Wessex. She was now Queen in her own right. She had "persuaded" her husband that it was better if he returned to his own palace alone and that she would follow on later. Eadburh was very much like her father in her ability to get men, even Kings to bow to her will.  
  
The Doctor and the Brigadier were sat on a bench close to crowd that hovered around Ecgfrith. After bringing them to the hall Leo had left to attend the King in his council. It was likely that they would not now see him again until morning.  
  
"Listen Doctor, can't we just go. I mean you have seen that the boy is OK now" asked the Brigadier as he signalled for one of the servants to fill his cup again.  
  
"No. If other ambitious races learn that I have a clone living here they will descend on this planet like a plague. The temporal ripples he is creating are like sirens in time alerting them to his location. We have to take him somewhere else," said the Doctor.  
  
"Do you think he will go quietly?" asked the Brigadier.  
  
"Well I know I wouldn't so that suggests that he won't," said the Doctor as his face sunk in to a sulk.  
  
"So what are we going to do?" asked the Brigadier again.  
  
"Well he seems to be worried that something nasty out there is stalking the Palace. Perhaps if we can solve that little problem then he may be more open to suggestion" replied the Doctor.  
  
"And I suppose your desire to hang about has nothing to do with your burning curiosity to know what is going on?" asked the Brigadier.  
  
The Doctor smiled a guilty smile that suggested he had been found out.  
  
*******************************  
  
The evening passed in ever more energetic celebration until the early hours when people began to drift off to sleep wherever they were settled. When the Brigadier finally awoke he found the hall nearly empty again. The people of the court were about their daily business again and he had overslept. The local grog had not seemed to have affected him as severely this morning. He thought to himself, with some satisfaction, that he was finally acclimatising to the local brew.  
  
The Brigadier looked around and was not surprised to note that the Doctor was nowhere to be seen. He was obviously sticking his nose in somewhere it was not wanted. The Brigadier decided it would be nice to have a stroll down to the local stream and sprinkle some water on his face. He got up and headed towards the door.  
  
Once he was outside the Brigadier headed towards the main gate of the enclosure.  
  
"Brigadier" called a female voice.  
  
He turned to see who was calling him. His eyes were still half-asleep but he could make out the shape of a tall woman. Her copper coloured hair was long and hanging loose. Traces of gold thread seemed to have been woven in to plaits that hung about her ears. She wore a deep green cloak decorated with embroidered animals. The silhouette was unmistakable and could only be the Lady Eadburh. Or Queen Eadburh as she was now known.  
  
The Brigadier almost called her 'Your Majesty' but quickly remembered that the term would not be used for another 700 years.  
  
"What can I do for you my Lady" he finally managed.  
  
Eadburh moved elegantly towards him as though her feet barely had to touch the ground.  
  
"My Lord the King has told me that you are a great warrior" she said.  
  
The Brigadier shrugged as his modesty compelled him to keep quiet.  
  
"He also said that you have slain many monsters" she continued.  
  
"Let's just say I have an interesting resume" replied the Brigadier.  
  
"Well then perhaps we should put your talents to the test" she replied.  
  
With a sudden lurch the Queen propelled herself in to the air and howling like a banshee bared her teeth as she hurtled towards the Brigadier. The old soldier had enough time to glimpse two sharp fangs where her canine teeth should be before she landed on top of him.  
  
To be continued. 


	4. Part 4

Eadburh was clinging to the Brigadier with a preternatural strength. The old soldier was waving his arms about frantically trying to repel her attack. He was expecting to feel her teeth plunging in to his neck at any moment. Instead all he felt was a tickle underneath each arm. The Brigadier and Eadburh collapsed in a heap on the floor as tears of submission began to well up in the soldier's eyes. Fangs he could cope with but tickling was beyond his strength.  
  
"Not so powerful a soldier after all" said Eadburh.  
  
The Brigadier was still waving his limbs about on the floor when he noticed that the Queen was no longer holding on to him. He opened up his eyes to see her hovering in the air, about six feet above his prone position. He hair flapping around her face in the wind.  
  
Eadburh was smiling and there seemed no trace of he fangs among the gleaming white teeth. The Brigadier raised himself up on his elbows and looked her square in the eyes.  
  
"Madam will you please explain yourself" he said.  
  
"I was just teasing you," she said before breaking in to a laugh.  
  
"I do not mean the tickling, I mean the whole fangs and flying business" replied the Brigadier as he tried to regain his composure.  
  
"What do you mean?" asked the woman.  
  
"I mean what is with all the vampire behaviour?" asked the Brigadier, pointing at the fact she was floating above him.  
  
Eadburh looked back at him with a mix of curiosity and confusion.  
  
"Brigadier, how many vampires do you know that frequent open spaces in broad daylight" said the Doctor.  
  
The Brigadier turned to see the Doctor approaching from the gate.  
  
The Brigadier made a great show of getting up as quickly as his rickety old legs could mange.  
  
"Well none" said the Brigadier.  
  
The Doctor approached Eadburh and bowed his head before speaking.  
  
"Apologies my lady. I am afraid my friend does no know much of Mercian ways"  
  
Eadburh gently brought herself down to the ground and moved over to the Brigadier.  
  
"I am sorry if I startled you old man" she said and then kissed him on the cheek.  
  
Silently she walked away towards Leo's house.  
  
"Old man indeed" mumbled the Brigadier.  
  
***************************  
  
"What was all that about?" asked the Brigadier.  
  
"I have absolutely no idea," said the Doctor as the two of them paced up and down outside Leo's small house.  
  
"You seemed to know what was going on"  
  
"Well I always did think I was born for the stage"  
  
"Listen Doctor this is not a joke, I thought that blasted woman was going to eat me."  
  
The Doctor raised an eyebrow.  
  
"She must have a taste for gristle"  
  
The Brigadier grabbed the Doctor by the arms and pulled his face close to his own.  
  
"Doctor, something is not right here and you are turning it in to a pantomime"  
  
The Brigadier released his grasp and leaned against the wall.  
  
"I'm too old for this now, twenty years ago I could have held her off but today, she just overpowered me"  
  
"Brigadier, any man would have found himself overpowered by that thing, whatever it was"  
  
"Father" it was Leo's voice.  
  
The Brigadier and the Doctor turned to look at him. His dog stood close behind him.  
  
******************************  
  
Once again the three men sat around the table in Leo's house, looking at each other in silence.  
  
"You should not have done it," said the Doctor.  
  
"Are you saying I should have let her die?" asked Leo.  
  
The Doctor was silent.  
  
"Was there no other way?" asked the Brigadier.  
  
"Perhaps, if I had time to think but time was short and I had no idea what the side effects would be" replied Leo.  
  
"You should not have interfered" snapped the Doctor.  
  
"Father you know your history, I could not let her die, what lies before her is too well known"  
  
The Doctor did not argue.  
  
"After the accident I looked at her and the blood loss I had to act" continued Leo.  
  
"So you stitched the wound and gave her a transfusion of you own blood" said the Brigadier.  
  
"Yes, I could not tell which of the other humans would match but though that my own Gallifreyan blood would be able to adapt to her system. I could not have known that my blood would start to adapt her system to suit itself"  
  
"But I don't understand. If she now has Timelord blood in her system, how come she seems to be developing Vampire characteristics" asked the Brigadier.  
  
"Because Brigadier much like Chimpanzees and Humans, Vampires and Timelords share 98% of their genetic make up" replied the Doctor.  
  
"I assume that the mix of the human and galifreyan blood has mutated her in to form of life that resembles Vampirism but is in fact a blend of all three species". Said Leo.  
  
The Doctor continued to frown.  
  
****************************************  
  
King Offa sat alone in his chamber. He was still, so still that he barely seemed to be breathing at all. His eyes were fixed on the door as though in anticipation of some great terror that he could not avoid.  
  
*******************************************  
  
Darkness was falling around the enclosure and the horn was being sounded to call everyone back to the safety of the Palace grounds.  
  
In the little house, where he sat with the Doctor and the Brigadier, Leo jumped to attention at the sound of the horn.  
  
"My god" exclaimed Leo " I haven't set Grendal or the barriers".  
  
Leo charged out of the house. The Doctor and the Brigadier followed behind him.  
  
When they reached the open space in front of the great hall they saw that almost the entire population of the enclosure had come there too. They were all looking at the sky. Leo was a few steps ahead of his companions and Eadburh was moving towards him.  
  
"They're coming," she said.  
  
Leo just nodded a response, his face frozen in an expression that was half guilt and half fear.  
  
They all looked up at the sky as it slowly began to turn black and now the only light flickered from torches set up outside the door of the great hall.  
  
The Doctor and the Brigadier exchanged glances and looked up again but now the sky was no longer black. A red glow was beginning to rise up from the south.  
  
As one those at the front of the crowd let out a sigh. The Doctor and the Brigadier turned to see what had caused the sigh. At first they could see nothing. On the edge of the clearing outside the enclosure there was nothing but the woods, bathed in shadow. Then they saw it, the shadows were moving.  
  
The Timelord and the old soldier seemed to move closer together as they absorbed the scene around them. The moving shadows, the reddening sky and the people huddled together in terror.  
  
Then there was the sound. A screeching whine, like the screams of a thousand dolphins in pain. The sound was getting louder and shapes were beginning to form in the sky. Shapes that looked like shadows.  
  
Then the people around them began to scream.  
  
To be continued. 


	5. Part 5

All the light had been sucked away and only the sounds told them what was happening around them. Firstly there were the screams, two types of screams. The first type was human; they were screams of fear and pain, often ending abruptly. The second type was clearly inhuman and sounded like the screeching of a nail down a blackboard. This scream was constant but becoming close or distant as the creatures moved about in the darkness.  
  
As they ran about the humans held on to each other and stretched out their arms as they tried to find their way to safety by touch. The screech would come close and would be followed by the screams of a human that would end with a coppery smelling splatter across their faces. Then the human screaming would stop. This went on for what seemed like hours until a silence fell around them. Slowly the light began to return followed by the song of the morning's birds.  
  
As the scene around him began to reveal itself the Brigadier first checked the location of the people he knew. The Doctor was huddled beside him near the boundary wall. Leo and Eadburh were standing, clinging to each other in the middle of the clearing in front of the hall.  
  
Slowly the Brigadier was beginning to notice the colours. The rich green of the trees and grass that was everywhere here. The rich earthy colours painted on the exteriors of the hall and some of the other exteriors.  
  
Then there was the red. Splashes and puddles of red where everywhere. It was a dark, almost black red and it seemed to coat everything in the enclosure. The Brigadier looked down at himself and there was some splattered across the front of his shirt. It had the unmistakable texture of blood.  
  
The Brigadier checked himself over and was certain it was not his own blood. He looked at the Doctor and was relieved it was not the Timelord's blood either. So the grim realisation followed that it was all that was left of whoever else had been standing beside him. He could not remember whether it had been a man, woman or child but they were gone.  
  
The Brigadier began to look more closely at the sight before him, half expecting to see shattered limbs and gore. However all there was blood and dazed people calling and searching, trying to find those that were now missing.  
  
******************************** Eadburh was asleep in the other part of Leo's house while the Doctor, Leo and the Brigadier sat around the table as they had the previous day. Ruff the dog lay by the doorway as though on guard.  
  
"So this is not the first time that this has happened?" asked the Doctor.  
  
"No" said Leo "The accident that originally injured Eadburh happened during an attack by Welsh raiders. We all fought them off, men and women. During a scuffle Eadburh was pushed on to my sword. That evening I treated her and the night time attacks began shortly after that"  
  
"That would explain the sense of responsibility to her," said the Doctor to himself.  
  
"What were those things?" asked the Brigadier.  
  
The Doctor and Leo looked at each other with a shared expression of uncertainty. Uncertainty about the impact of what they had to say.  
  
"Many generations ago on my home world my people were much like humans" said the Doctor "But when we first began to explore time the effects started to wear out our bodies at an accelerated rate. Eventually we developed regeneration as a way to extend out lives"  
  
"But other avenues were first explored and discarded along the way to the discovery of regeneration" interrupted Leo.  
  
"One of these avenues was an early form of Vampirism, which would explain how Leo's blood has mutated Eadburh. She must be particularly suggestive to external genetic influence" continued the Doctor.  
  
"This is all very interesting but how does this relate to the things we saw last night?" asked the Brigadier.  
  
"Another of the avenues that was explored was to abandon humanoid form altogether" said the Doctor "Several hundred Gallifreyans subjected themselves to the process. At first it seemed to work wonderfully. They were impervious to harm and decay. Soon they began to develop the power to navigate the temporal vortex independently. However their lack of physicality began to frustrate them. They could not fully interact with the worlds they visited. Slowly they went ferociously mad. Their sheer fury began tearing at the fabric of space wherever they arrived."  
  
"Fuelled by a sense of revenge against their former kin they began to hunt us down. Hundreds of our people were pursued and killed by them. However, eventually we learnt to mask our minds from their telepathic searching" Said Leo.  
  
"But when Eadburh mutated she began to send out Galifreyan telepathic signals into the vortex as our people once did. As she is not able to mask herself she is acting like a beacon to them."  
  
"So let me get this straight" said the Brigadier "These are lunatic ghosts of former Timelords hunting any lifeform with Galifreyan blood in a frenzy of revenge"  
  
"Yes," said Leo " Eventually I was able to set up a few things around the encampment to block Eadburh's thoughts from them. Grendel was just part of that system. But the devices need a regular reset and last night as we talked I forgot to do it. From across the vortex they smelt her out and came for her and everyone she knew "  
  
"So if you reset them now then we should be OK"  
  
"No" said the Doctor "They have found their way to her here twice, now at close quarters they will have been unable to overlook Leo and I"  
  
"And what does that mean?"  
  
"It means that Eadburh alone was a random target but the three of us are worth special attention" replied Leo.  
  
******************************* 


	6. Part 6

The Doctor, Leo, Eadburh and the Brigadier stood in the great hall, waiting for the King. It was mid day and light was streaming in to the hall and glinting of the golden thread woven in to the tapestries that hung on the walls. The hall felt warm and comfortable despite its size and they all felt strangely at peace there.  
  
They were waiting to see the King. He was the only man in the country who could call on enough men to properly defend the enclosure. Leo was going to try to persuade him to send out the call to his Lords for men to come to their aid.  
  
"Remind me why we don't just all jump in the Tardis and go somewhere that it is safe?" asked the Brigadier.  
  
"This is our home," said Leo in a way that indicated that no further debate was necessary.  
  
The Brigadier looked between the Doctor and Leo. Physically they were very different but he could detect the same steely determination under their outwardly friendly guises. Then the door at the side of the Hall opened and the King stepped in. They all bowed their heads in respect as the king moved over to his great chair.  
  
"So, Leoffric, what matter do you need to speak to me so urgently on" asked the King.  
  
"The attack last night my Lord. The lady Eadburh was seriously imperilled and we must prepare to deflect further attacks" said Leo.  
  
"What would you have me do?" asked the King.  
  
"I would humbly recommend that you send out the call to all the Earls and Lords to send men to protect the Palace. We can then prepare them to see off further assaults".  
  
The Doctor watched the exchange between King Offa and Leo carefully. At first the King had seemed his usual self. However, the King was a man of action and the Doctor would have expected him to have quickly decided on a course of action, but he was questioning and debating this issue at great length. It appeared that he was trying to persuade Leo that to take any action at all would be an overreaction.  
  
The Doctor slipped his hand in to an inside pocket and pulled out a pair of battered spectacles. Making a great show of cleaning them on the cuff of his jacket he then put them on and began to examine his fingernails. When he had looked at his fingers long enough to make it appear convincing that he had put them on for that very task he looked up at the king.  
  
The Doctor had to stifle his every instinct to stop himself from jumping back in horror at what her saw. He pulled the spectacles down to the tip of his nose and looked over them at the King again. The apparition had gone. Then he pushed the spectacles back up on to the bridge of his nose and took in the figure he could now see through them.  
  
It was intangible like a shadow but it appeared to have solid mass. It was almost transparent but seemed to swallow all the light around itself. It was the figure of a man, standing beside the King and whispering into his ear. It had a face, which was too indistinct to read, and its inaudible voice seemed to rustle the King's long fair hair like a gentle breeze.  
  
The Doctor took of the spectacles and put them back in his pocket. When he looked at the King again he seemed to be alone and without his shadowy companion.  
  
They watched the king depart and Leo turned back to the others.  
  
"Well, that didn't go as well as planned" he said  
  
"Let me talk to him, I am sure I can persuade him" said Eadburh before she turned to follow her father out of the hall.  
  
The Doctor, Leo and the Brigadier stood looking at each other.  
  
"Well, following the nights events I would have thought he would have been easy to persuade," said the Brigadier.  
  
"I think that is the problem, he was too open to persuasion. Just not from us" replied the Doctor.  
  
Leo and the Brigadier exchanged puzzled looks and then both turned to face the Doctor, their expressions demanded an answer. The Doctor pulled the spectacles out from his pocket a waved them in front of his companion's faces.  
  
"These rather ordinary looking glasses are in fact Gallifreyan Divination Goggles," he said.  
  
The Brigadier raised a quizzical eyebrow.  
  
"They enable the wearer to see subtle disturbances in the temporal vortex that even Timelords senses are not sensitive enough to pick up. When I looked at the king through them I saw something. Something that should not be there" finished the Doctor.  
  
Eadburh made her way through the long covered walkway that connected the Hall to the King's private rooms. She felt a slight brush against her face and turned to where she though it had come from but there was nobody there.  
  
She began moving onwards again but the feeling of being watched was growing. Suddenly a cold shiver ran down her spine as she felt an icy hand pass though her body like a ghost and clasp hold of her heart. She was bound to the spot but resisting like a fish on the line, turning franticly to catch sight of her assailant. But she could see or hear none. The hand on her heart began to squeeze. 


	7. Part 7

Eadburh was beginning to feel cold. The view of the walkway around her was beginning to blur and another long corridor was forming in her vision. Instead of the passage she had walked since her childhood a strange swirling mass of light and sound seemed to surround her. There were two distinct kinds of sound. The first was the roar of the very air being torn apart around her and the second was more like a whisper, a whisper that she could feel more than she could hear.  
  
She could feel the whispers like the breath of a lover against her skin. The whispers were streams of sound rather than processions of words but she could understand them.  
  
"Is she ready?" asked the first Whisperer.  
  
"Yes, the new blood has fully incorporated in to her system," said the Whisperer with hand around her heart.  
  
"Then you may begin," said the first.  
  
Eadburh opened her eyes and looked around herself. She was lying in the mud between the great hall and her father's private rooms. While she lay there unmoving, feeling the cold wet smeared across her face she could tell she was not alone anymore. There was something else with her, in her mind and sharing her body.  
  
"We are one now," said the other voice.  
  
A stab of pain cut through her temple as she felt the final divisions in her mind melt away. They were indeed one now, they were Eadburh. They both were Eadburh. She was Eadburh.  
  
"I am one now," she said.  
  
Eadburh entered her father's room and found the old man sitting in a corner with his gaze fixed on the apparition on the other side of the room.  
  
Eadburh turned her gaze to her father first of all.  
  
"Father, fear no more. The shackles that bind your mind will soon be free and you will be joined"  
  
"The process works?" asked the shadow's whisper.  
  
"Yes. First I need to mix his blood with mine so that his cells can begin to mutate and then when you join with him the bond will be perpetual" replied Eadburh.  
  
"Blood" stuttered the old King as he looked up at the thing that looked like his daughter.  
  
"Yes blood" said Eadburh as the picked up a blade from a nearby table.  
  
The Brigadier stood patiently as he watched the Doctor and Leo squabbling with each other. He had completely lost track of what it was exactly they did not agree a long time ago. The two of them were now at the point where they were gesticulating wildly at each other. This meant that it could still go on for hours if Leo really was a clone of the Doctor.  
  
They had not seen Eadburh since she had run after her father the day before and Leo was becoming concerned. He had tried to get access to the King himself but had been repeatedly denied. That was enough of an alarm bell for him become very worried. However, both men fell silent when to door in to the Hall opened.  
  
Eadburh walked gracefully into the hall with her arm wrapped attentively around that of her father. The two royals moved over to the Doctor and Leo without acknowledging the presence of the Brigadier.  
  
When he saw the King approach the Doctor fumbled to get his spectacles on to the end of his nose. The Doctor looked carefully at the man but could see no sign of the strange spectral form that had been with him earlier. Putting away his spectacles, the Doctor considered the King and his daughter carefully.  
  
"Have you reconsidered our request?" asked Leo.  
  
"There is no need" replied Eadburh.  
  
"No need" shouted the Doctor "Don't you have any sense of the unimaginable tragedy that could befall your people if you do not act"  
  
"Doctor we are fully aware of what will happen when the kindred arrive" said King Offa.  
  
There was a long silence.  
  
"The Kindred?" asked the Doctor as alarm spread through his mind.  
  
"The period of assessment is over. The raids have fulfilled their purpose and there will be no more" said Eadburh.  
  
"What do you mean, fulfilled their purpose?" interjected Leo.  
  
"The raids were a simple test of the durability and computability of the human form. In this historical period they are in the ideal state, free from pollution but their brains developed yet still playable" said the King.  
  
"There was also the bonus of a convenient source of an appropriate genetic sample for the first stage of the conversion" said Eadburh as she looked pointedly at Leo.  
  
"You used my blood, for what?" asked Leo.  
  
"It was an ideal primer, to prepare the humans for union. Eadburh was the prototype and I am the proof that it works in practice" said the King.  
  
"So whatever devils you are you just took over the bodies of these poor humans, it's outrageous," said the Doctor.  
  
"No. Offa is still here," said the King as he placed his hand on his chest "but so is Prydonia, Chief of the Temporal Kindred. We are one. Physical lifeform and temporal spirit perpetually bound together as a single being. The power and will of Prydonia merged with the sensibility and body of Offa"  
  
"So this whole thing, from Eadburh's injury through to the attacks was set up by you just to test these people out as possible hosts. What kind of monstors are you?" exclaimed an agitated Leo.  
  
"We were the Kindred," said Eadburh "We were the first of the Timelords, expelled from the physical world because we were too strong to be controlled by Rassilon and his cronies".  
  
Off continued "Now in union with these Humans we are reborn as a new species. More powerful than human or kindred. More powerful than the impure filth that replaced us on Gallifrey. We can now physically reclaim our place as the true and perpetual Lords of Time"  
  
With that Offa and Eadburh slowly rose off the floor as their skin began to glow and slow whine began to emanate from them. Outside the Doctor, Leo and the Brigadier could see the sky darken and hear the screeches of the shadowy kindred as they again descend upon the enclosure.  
  



End file.
